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Experienced recruiter joins ambitious Aycliffe agency

An experienced recruitment specialist has joined an ambitious Newton Aycliffe agency which is now expanding its services.

Former motor trade apprentice Scott Martin has joined Aycliffe-based Fleet Recruitment, which provides recruitment and training services spanning a wide range of sectors including sales and marketing, commercial and automotive.

The 44-year-old, from Darlington, has several years’ experience in high-level recruitment. After specialising in the engineering and manufacturing sectors, as well as helping large firms to recruit senior finance roles, Scott now aims to help Fleet expand into those areas.

The firm’s managing director Neil O’Connor (pictured above, right, with Scott), said: “I wanted to expand the portfolio of services we offer in recruitment into different markets, and Scott has been on our radar for a long time.

“Trying to recruit good recruiters these days is actually really tough. But what we liked about Scott is that he mirrors our values. He’s very straight-forward and easy to do business with.

“He’s a really experienced consultant who has excellent competence in engineering, manufacturing and more recently four or five years senior finance positions.

“It has taken us a year to find Scott and that opportunity to take someone on who mirrors our ethics and values, and he fits really well into our team and the reputation we’re trying to build.”

Scott started his career as an apprentice vehicle technician and spent 12 years in the motor trade, latterly in customer service, progressing to service manager of a Honda dealership in London.

He and his wife then spent a year travelling the world before returning to their native North-East, where Scott joined a marketing agency, and then set up his own in Stockton and Newcastle.

A career change took Scott into the recruitment sector in 2010, and he has spent a number of years working for a major international recruitment agency before joining Fleet Recruitment.

“I was not happy with recruitment as an industry,” admits Scott, who lives in Darlington with his wife and their two children.

“But I do genuinely get a buzz when I know people have been in a job years after I’ve placed them. That’s the real measure of your success, and it also means you’ve done your job properly.

“Working with Fleet Recruitment really appealed and it’s given me an opportunity to spread my wings and enjoy the role again.”

Neil adds: “We pride ourselves on being very straight-forward, honest, transparent and thorough. It’s not always easy to find in recruitment.

“If you don’t understand the day in the life of an employee – the competencies and the impact that person needs to bring to the business – then you can’t begin to structure an interview, and you can’t drill out those competencies.

“We’re about quality over quantity. We control our volumes carefully so that we are able to cuddle customers in a way the high street agencies can’t. It also means you’re remembered fondly by your clients for all the right reasons and I’m really proud of our client retention.”

Fleet Recruitment, launched in December 2014, is located at St Cuthbert’s House on Aycliffe Business Park and is already working with a number of well-known national brands from global manufacturing firms to world-renowned luxury car dealerships.